ISBN books - what kind of code is it and how to get it?

Today, one of the most successful standards of electronic publications is the ISBN code of the book. What kind of format is it and what are its advantages, few users know, but for incomplete thirty years of active use it has already conquered publishers from all over the world, and the modern bookselling without it is simply unimaginable. Ordering and subsequent distribution of books reached a new level after the introduction of this standard, because a huge number of publications in the current market can be under normal control only through directories based on the technology of using the ISBN book. What this is and how it is used, we will consider below.

By itself, this code is rather short and can be easily read using special scanning equipment. For many people it remains unknown where to find ISBN books, what it is and what advantages this format has. It should be noted that it is applicable not only to various printed publications, but can also be used for books not made in printed format, and especially electronic ones, among which it has become popular today.

What are the advantages of the format?

The popularity of this format is determined by the merits of ISBN-books. What are these advantages:

• The format can be called without exaggeration an absolutely unique determinant of publications, because the extremely simple number of 10 digits completely replaces any lengthy descriptions. Thus, a person saves a significant amount of effort and time, and also completely eliminates any errors during copying.
• Now it is easier to compose and update subsequently various catalogs on the published literature by analogy with the technology of "Books in print". It is extremely simple, if necessary, to find all the information you are interested in on certain books published.
• The order, as well as the subsequent distribution of books is carried out in the majority of cases when using this format, because it is much faster and more efficient.
• ISBN can be read using standard scanning equipment in the form of a barcode, while the scanning procedure is carried out quickly enough to exclude the majority of errors.
• ISBN is necessary in the process of the operation of various electronic sales terminals in modern bookstores.
• The management of rights to date is in most cases done with the help of this system.
• Monitoring of sales data is also carried out using the ISBN.
• When using cataloging on the basis of this system, the efficiency of libraries greatly increases.
• Also on this system is the national lease right in the UK.

What is he like?

International standard book number - this is how the ISBN books are interpreted. What is it, today is known only by a few people who are actively interested in reading books and use them in both electronic and traditional ways. All over the world this format is popular for the reason that it is the clearest, shortest and at the same time readable identification number, with the help of which it is possible without any difficulty to determine any book in the shortest possible time. After such intellectual products are assigned their own unique number, it should have exactly this format.

It is worth noting that to date the ISBN format accompanies the publication from the production stage and on. It is for this reason that it can be called one of the most important tools in the modern system of distribution and rationalization of trade in books.

How is it used?

To date, almost every edition has its own ISBN number. The book code is set for the following editions:

• All kinds of brochures or printed books;
• Publications in which mixed media are used;
• Books recorded on CDs or cassettes (audiobooks);
• Specialized microcomputer software;
• e-books;
• Braille editions;
• Publications stored on microcarriers;
• cards.

It is worth noting that this list is incomplete, and in fact the ISBN format is now quite actively used to register a lot of different books. Printed publications of one-time use, including all kinds of diaries, calendars, advertising materials and other similar products may not use this recording format. Also it concerns reproductions without a title page and text or all sorts of sound recordings.

Structure

The book is searched by ISBN according to its individual code, which is made up of the abbreviation ISBN itself, as well as the next 10 digits. It should be noted that in countries where the Latin alphabet is not used, the abbreviation can be used with the local alphabet in addition to the ISBN, which is written in Latin.

The code consisting of 10 digits is divided into four different groups of different lengths, which are clearly separated from each other by a space or a hyphen, and it is worth noting the fact that in practice the use of a hyphen is optimal. The number of digits that are in the first three parts of the code can be different, and the number of digits identifying a particular group or publisher is determined approximately by the estimated volume of runs of a particular publisher or group of publishers. If we are talking about publishers or groups with only a small number of publications, then the identifier is extremely short.

Group ID

The country, region or the system's language area is the most important thing that includes the first part of the ISBN for the e-book. It should be noted that certain areas of the system are often formed by language areas or unique regional groups. The maximum possible length of such an identifier is 5 characters.

Each group identifier is assigned without fail with the help of the international agency ISBN, which is currently located in Berlin.

Publisher ID

For the second part of this code, you can determine which particular publisher from the group has issued a certain book. Now there is no need to perform a whole series of additional actions if you want to find a book with ISBN. With the help of the publisher's identifier, in most cases, not only the name of the publisher itself, but also its address, is accurately determined. In the event that the publisher has not turned off the numbers that are allocated for him, then for him a specialized publisher identifier can be allocated, the length of which can not exceed 7 characters.

The publisher's ID is assigned to a specific literature directly by the ISBN itself, which is responsible for managing the system in different countries, regions or linguistic areas.

Publisher ID

The third part of the code determines which particular publication is in question in a particular publishing house. It should be noted that this identifier can have a length of not more than 6 digits, and since the ISBN must necessarily contain at least 10 digits, the non-filled ones are filled with zeros.

Check digit

The check digit represents the last item in this code. It is worth noting that this number is calculated as a modulo 11 division with a value of 10-2, and if 10 is a check digit, then it is replaced with X. It is important to remember if you do not know how to get an ISBN for a book .

Thus, any figure from the first nine (including the control one) is eventually multiplied by a number from 2 to 10, and the resulting result with the control digit added to it must be divided into 11 without any remainder.

How are the rooms allocated?

The number of digits in each individual part can vary, despite the fact that there should not be more than nine of them in total, because these nine digits together with the control represent a final code made up of 10 digits.

The number of digits in the group ID may vary depending on how many publications are present in the group. Thus, in those groups where there are fewer printed products, numbers of one or two digits are used, while editions with large printed issues receive numbers with three or more digits.

In order to make it easy to read and also make it easier to find a book on the ISBN, all parts of the code are separated by hyphens or spaces, and the use of hyphens in the programming phase can significantly reduce the amount of work involved in data entry.